Chapter 5 - The Man Who Was Buried Fourteen Years Ago
Luca did not move.
Elena watched his face.
Every emotion vanished from it.
Daniel whispered, "That's impossible."
Matteo grabbed the edge of the table.
"My grandfather?"
Victor DeSantis had been dead for fourteen years.
Elena remembered his funeral.
Closed coffin.
Thousands of flowers.
Luca standing at twenty-four years old beside his mother.
Silent.
Broken.
Now Victor stood outside the mansion.
Alive.
Luca walked toward the front door.
Elena followed.
He turned.
"Stay."
"No."
"Elena."
"You think you're meeting your dead father alone?"
His eyes flashed.
"Yes."
"Then you're not thinking clearly."
That stopped him.
Daniel almost smiled.
Luca glared at him.
"Say one word."
Daniel raised both hands.
They entered the foyer together.
Marco opened the front door.
Victor stood at the bottom of the steps.
Dominic beside him.
Victor looked at Luca.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Victor said, "You've grown into your mother's temper."
Luca crossed the distance and punched him.
Victor fell.
Dominic shouted.
Elena gasped.
Luca grabbed Victor's coat.
"Fourteen years!"
Victor didn't fight back.
"Fourteen years!"
"I know."
"You let me bury you!"
"I know."
Luca hit him again.
Elena grabbed Luca's arm.
"Stop!"
He looked at her.
She shook her head.
"Not until you know why."
Luca released Victor.
Victor wiped blood from his mouth.
"She's smarter than both of us."
Luca's jaw tightened.
"Don't speak about her."
Victor looked at Elena.
"Your mother said the same thing."
Elena froze.
"You knew my mother."
"Very well."
"Did you hurt her?"
Victor looked shocked.
"No."
"Someone did."
"I know."
"Who?"
Victor glanced at Dominic.
Dominic looked away.
Luca saw.
"Uncle."
Dominic said, "Inside."
They moved to the library.
Victor stared at the shelves.
"Still terrible taste."
Luca almost attacked him again.
Elena squeezed his hand.
Victor noticed.
Something like sadness crossed his face.
"My son loves you."
Elena didn't answer.
Luca said, "You're not entitled to observations."
Victor sat.
"I suppose not."
Daniel stood opposite him.
"I watched your coffin go into the ground."
Victor nodded.
"There was a body."
"Whose?"
"A man named Marcus Rell."
Daniel looked sick.
"You used him?"
"He was already dead."
"How?"
Victor ignored the question.
Luca slammed his palm onto the desk.
"Why did you fake your death?"
Victor looked at him.
"Because the person trying to kill me was someone close enough to kill you too."
"Who?"
"I didn't know."
"You disappeared for fourteen years because you didn't know?"
"I disappeared because every person I trusted became a possible suspect."
Dominic closed his eyes.
Victor continued.
"Your mother knew."
Luca froze.
"My mother knew you were alive?"
"For three years."
Luca looked devastated.
"She lied to me too."
"She protected you."
"Stop calling lies protection."
Victor accepted that.
"Fair."
Elena asked, "My mother?"
Victor's expression softened.
"She helped me disappear."
Elena sat down.
"What?"
"Your mother created the financial trail that convinced everyone I was dead."
"Why?"
"Because she believed the archive could expose the people behind the council."
"Did they attack her?"
Victor looked at Dominic.
Dominic finally spoke.
"Yes."
Elena's stomach twisted.
"Who?"
"We never identified him."
"Then why did the note tell me to ask you?"
Dominic looked ashamed.
"Because I found her afterward."
"Where?"
"Victor's warehouse."
"And?"
"She had been interrogated."
"About the archive."
"Yes."
"Did you tell anyone?"
"No."
"Why?"
"She begged me not to."
Elena stared at him.
"That isn't an answer."
Dominic struggled.
"Because she said if the council knew she survived, they'd come after you."
Elena looked down.
Her mother's fear.
Her secrecy.
Her silence.
Suddenly it made terrible sense.
Luca turned toward Victor.
"Who has the rest of the archive?"
Victor answered.
"Elena."
Everyone looked at her.
She laughed from shock.
"I don't."
"You do."
"Where?"
Victor pointed at the clasp.
"That was one key."
"And the second?"
"Your foundation."
Daniel frowned.
"We searched every account."
"Because you searched the accounts."
Victor looked at Elena.
"Your mother hid it in the people."
Elena stared.
"What does that mean?"
"The first seven shelters."
She understood slowly.
"Names?"
Victor nodded.
"Take the first letter of each shelter's original director."
Daniel grabbed a notepad.
Elena listed them from memory.
Mercy House — Ruth Allen.
Harbor Center — Isaac Bell.
Safe Haven — Victor Chen.
New Dawn — Evelyn Ross.
Willow Place — Rachel Stone.
Bridge House — Samuel Trent.
Marlowe Women's Center — Olivia Dane.
R I V E R S O.
Daniel rearranged.
"RIVERSO."
Victor said, "Not a word."
Elena frowned.
Luca looked at the letters.
"Reverse."
Elena reversed them.
O S R E V I R.
Nothing.
Then she remembered her mother's habit.
"Shift each letter backward one."
N R Q D U H Q.
Still nonsense.
Victor smiled faintly.
"She always overcomplicated everything."
Elena looked at the shelter names again.
First letters of directors.
Maybe surnames.
Allen, Bell, Chen, Ross, Stone, Trent, Dane.
A B C R S T D.
No.
Luca said, "First seven shelters."
Elena suddenly remembered the cities.
Brooklyn.
Queens.
Bronx.
Harlem.
Staten Island.
Yonkers.
Newark.
B Q B H S Y N.
Still nothing.
Then Rosa's phrase returned.
Your mother used the foundation as a lockbox.
Elena whispered, "Not letters."
She pulled up the original opening dates.
Seven dates.
Victor nodded.
"Now you're thinking like her."
The dates created a fourteen-digit number.
Daniel entered them into the directory.
A new prompt appeared.
VOICE AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED.
Everyone stared.
Elena whispered, "Whose voice?"
The screen displayed:
E.M.
Elena Marlowe.
Her mother had the same initials.
But she was dead.
Victor said softly, "Your mother planned for that."
A second line appeared.
AUTHORIZED SUCCESSOR: ELENA MARLOWE.
Elena leaned toward the microphone.
"What do I say?"
Victor looked at her.
"Something she told you every night."
Elena's eyes filled.
She remembered.
Her mother had said it since childhood.
Not a prayer.
A promise.
"Kindness without courage is only intention."
The screen unlocked.
Folders flooded the display.
Documents.
Audio.
Videos.
Payment records.
Names.
Hundreds.
Marco whispered, "This could put people away for life."
Victor nodded.
"That's the idea."
Luca looked at him.
"Then why wait fourteen years?"
"Because I didn't know which federal officials were compromised."
Daniel said, "And now?"
"Now I do."
Elena asked, "How?"
Victor looked toward the hall.
"Someone inside the council made a mistake."
"What mistake?"
"They attacked you."
Elena stared.
Victor continued.
"They exposed that Victor's ring was still operational."
"Who had it?"
Victor turned toward Dominic.
Dominic looked down.
"I lost it."
"When?"
"Three months ago."
"How?"
"I was drugged at a charity event."
Luca's expression tightened.
"And you told nobody?"
"I was ashamed."
Victor laughed bitterly.
"That's always been your weakness."
Dominic snapped, "And disappearing is yours."
For the first time, Victor looked wounded.
Luca intervened.
"Enough."
Everyone stopped.
"Where is my family?"
Dominic looked confused.
"What?"
"When we returned, everyone was gone."
Victor stood.
"I didn't move them."
Luca's face hardened.
Dominic looked alarmed.
"Teresa?"
"Missing."
"Carlo?"
"Missing."
"Rosa?"
"Missing."
Victor swore.
Marco checked the security network again.
A video file appeared.
New upload.
He opened it.
Teresa sat in a dark room.
Carlo beside her.
Rosa.
Six other family members.
Alive.
Bound.
A masked man stepped into frame.
Voice distorted.
"Victor DeSantis."
Victor leaned closer.
The masked man continued.
"You should have stayed dead."
A knife appeared.
Elena's stomach turned.
The man placed it on the table.
"In exchange for your family, bring the complete archive."
Luca said, "Where?"
The video changed.
Coordinates appeared.
Daniel recognized them.
"Pier 19."
Victor's face tightened.
The masked man leaned toward the camera.
"And bring Elena Marlowe."
Luca said immediately, "No."
The video continued.
"Because without her voice, the archive is useless."
The screen went black.
Then one final live image appeared.
Carlo was pulled closer to the camera.
He looked terrified.
He shouted one sentence before someone covered his mouth.
"LUCA, DON'T TRUST VICTOR!"
The feed ended.
Everyone turned toward Luca's father.
May you like
Victor slowly raised his hands.
And then Marco's phone rang from a number that had belonged to Luca's mother.
